Thursday, May 7, 2015

MISSIONS YOU [CHAPTER 2]

Continued...




The chops of the blade above the forest floor brought Maja back to the dread of the towering forest. The only clue he had as to how long he’d been gone were the chirps of the cricket, hoots of the owls and the blanket of darkness that had enveloped the forest.

The chopper was hovering above and a beam of light pierced the vegetation. Maja heard footsteps treading twigs and rotting leaves less than one hundred meters away and reasoned that a search had begun for him.

The throbs from different parts of his body brought to mind thoughts about how many bones had been fragmented. Paying attention to them would do no good right now; he had to find a way out of this forest.

“Run,” Elion’s Spirit said again and Maja almost screamed. How was he supposed to run with all these bones throbbing with chinks? Where would he run to? How did Elion’s spirit expect him to run in this darkness?

“Run,” Elion’s Spirit repeated again and despite Maja’s inclination to obey the hurts in his body, he started off with a trot. His unwillingness negotiated the zeal bend when he heard Tibetan Mastiffs barking some fifty meters away.  The pains in his body gave way to an adrenaline surge that saw his body expressing a kinaesthetic intelligence that rivalled his past performance barely eleven hours ago.

He couldn’t see where he was going, yet he didn’t run into any tree trunks nor get his feet entangled in calamus shrubs. His movement stirred a series of barks and increased leave-trampling as the choppers beam chased his tail.

Whether he’d run for what seemed like five minutes or thirty, Maja couldn’t tell but he broke into an open field with waist high elephant grass just as the sun rays split the cloudy skies. Maja had never felt betrayed by the sun. This moment, he almost swore against its maker. Couldn’t the sun have found a more convenient (or inconvenient) time to rise?

Despite the weight of the sun being dropped on his spirit, his feet refused to buckle. They picked up pace and picked some more. He dared to look back after running sixty meters into the field which was bordered by a stretch of bamboo groove a full kilometre ahead. About twenty militants in black camos broke through the forest line behind him, four mastiffs ahead of them. The ASIM-crested chopper cleared the forest line moments later.

***

Maj. Deriel observed the hordes chasing Maja across the fields and observed Capt. Baphael tense in anticipation of a battle. Their company was scattered about the bamboo groove, all weapons sheathed and cloaks activated. Maj. Deriel knew the implications of engaging the approaching horde under Bullo’s command in the bamboo groove. They would save Maja, but would lose the seventeen other missionaries awaiting execution in ASIM’s camp.

“What’s your order, sir?” Capt. Baphael asked the major, not quite sure why Deriel hadn’t given any tactical orders yet. Baphael was Deriel’s second-in-command for the twelfth company of the twenty-fourth battalion of the Bureau of War. Their mission was simple, extract missionaries awaiting execution in Time Zone GMT +4.

They had camped here for the last one week and had not found any way of penetrating the thick fence of hades’ horde around ASIM’s camp. Despite sending cloaked scouts out, no sensible report had been gotten until ten hours ago when the Bureau of War Intel Squad reported that a missionary would be sent their way by Elion’s spirit and he would give them all the Intel they needed to penetrate the camp.

Deriel was well aware that the only advantage his 250-man company had against Bullo’s triple battalion would be stealth and in-depth Intel, so he waited.

“We wait,” Deriel replied Baphael.

“Sir, permission to speak freely.” Baphael said.

“Granted.”

“I don’t think that man will make it across the field alive, he’s too wounded to--"

“-- Is he running like a wounded man?” Deriel quizzed. “If the Intel Squad has guaranteed that he’ll make it here, then he will.”

Baphael stared at the man racing towards them with inhuman speed and realized Maja was being powered by the Elion’s Spirit. No man alive ran that fast.

“Engage the phantom protocol.” Deriel ordered.

“Yes, Sir!” Baphael responded and swept towards the closest platoon; Sgt Luriel’s phantom platoon.

To be continued...

Image credit: wheatonbible.org

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